An apparatus for preparing food is known from EP 2 034 872 B1. The apparatus is generally used in a domestic setting and provides a means of preparing food for eating by circulating a flow of hot air around the food items to heat and/or cook the food. Such an apparatus generally comprises an enclosed food preparation chamber, into which food items are placed and a flow of hot air is then circulated around the food preparation chamber to heat the food.
During the heating process steam is generally generated from water contained in the food, which causes the pressure in the food preparation chamber to increase. Furthermore, other liquids such as oil are also discharged from the food. Therefore, a problem with existing apparatus is that the air, steam and oil under increased pressure in the food preparation chamber is forcibly expelled through holes and gaps in an outer wall of the food preparation chamber to outside the apparatus.
In a known apparatus, a lower portion of the food preparation chamber is removable from the remainder of the apparatus so that food items may be easily placed in or removed from the food apparatus chamber. To aid placement and removal of the food items, the removable lower part of the food preparation chamber is positioned to be removed from a user facing side of the apparatus. However, gaps are formed between the removable part of the food preparation chamber and the rest of the apparatus which are formed on the user facing side of the apparatus. Therefore, a disadvantage of this arrangement is that air, steam and oil under pressure are exhausted through these gaps towards a user.
In addition to the foregoing, it will be appreciated that closing of the gaps by sealing means or repositioning of the removable part of the chamber away from the user facing side of the apparatus side would make the placement and removal of the removable part of the food preparation chamber cumbersome.